When creativity blooms from the rich soil of heritage, stories that both enchant and educate take flight. Solomon W Jagwe, a remarkable visual artist, joins us to weave a tapestry of his life, colored by the landscapes of Uganda and the pursuit of his passion in the USA. The echoes of his childhood, marked by the inventiveness of toy-making and the shadows of war, resonate through our conversation, revealing the roots of his artistic journey. He takes us through his educational journey, where languages and cultures collide, shaping his approach to storytelling. His internship stories, a humorous vending machine encounter, and a fortuitous meeting that led him to new horizons all underscore the importance of seizing opportunities. Solomon's commitment to his craft and embrace of his heritage illuminate the path for aspiring creatives, demonstrating that every class and every experience weaves into the broader canvas of our professional endeavors. The importance of telling our own stories, nurturing our cultural identities, and documenting our histories is a call to action for all listeners; urging us to hold fast to our heritage and share our unique narratives with the world.
Solomon is the Creator and Director of the award winning «Adventures of Nkoza “Enjovu,The Elephant Tail” animated short film. He is also a writer at Moonbug Entertainment. His practice under the name Sowl Studios majors in Concept Design, Architectural Visualization, 3D Modeling and Animation, Motion Capture, Matte Painting, Illustration, and Story-boarding. He has worked with Rival Interactive, Cornerstone, SAIC, Camber and Floreo. He also shares his knowledge and tips with his over 140,000 subscribers on his YouTube Channel.
Instagram: @myafricanaesthetic
Website: https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
When creativity blooms from the rich soil of heritage, stories that both enchant and educate take flight. Solomon W Jagwe, a remarkable visual artist, joins us to weave a tapestry of his life, colored by the landscapes of Uganda and the pursuit of his passion in the USA. The echoes of his childhood, marked by the inventiveness of toy-making and the shadows of war, resonate through our conversation, revealing the roots of his artistic journey. He takes us through his educational journey, where languages and cultures collide, shaping his approach to storytelling. His internship stories, a humorous vending machine encounter, and a fortuitous meeting that led him to new horizons all underscore the importance of seizing opportunities. Solomon's commitment to his craft and embrace of his heritage illuminate the path for aspiring creatives, demonstrating that every class and every experience weaves into the broader canvas of our professional endeavors. The importance of telling our own stories, nurturing our cultural identities, and documenting our histories is a call to action for all listeners; urging us to hold fast to our heritage and share our unique narratives with the world.
Solomon is the Creator and Director of the award winning «Adventures of Nkoza “Enjovu,The Elephant Tail” animated short film. He is also a writer at Moonbug Entertainment. His practice under the name Sowl Studios majors in Concept Design, Architectural Visualization, 3D Modeling and Animation, Motion Capture, Matte Painting, Illustration, and Story-boarding. He has worked with Rival Interactive, Cornerstone, SAIC, Camber and Floreo. He also shares his knowledge and tips with his over 140,000 subscribers on his YouTube Channel.
Instagram: @myafricanaesthetic
Website: https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
Welcome to my African Aesthetic, a podcast that interrogates the African aesthetic in African architecture and design.
Speaker 1:On this podcast, you'll hear about the work, philosophy and design process of African architects and designers practicing in Africa and the diaspora.
Speaker 2:My name is Eunice Nanzala-Shumaker. I'm a Ugandan architect and designer living and working in Norway.
Speaker 1:And my name is Penina Achayu-Laker. I am a Ugandan graphic designer, researcher and educator living and practicing in the USA.
Speaker 2:Our podcast features conversations with designers working to provide architecture and design solutions for Africa.
Speaker 1:We would like this to become a platform where our guests share their knowledge and experiences on designing in the diverse, hybrid and dynamic socioeconomic, cultural and political African context.
Speaker 2:We are looking forward to embarking on this journey with you. Welcome to the last episode of Season 4. We are rounding off this season with Solomon Jagwe, a proud Muganda and Ugandan. A visual artist living in the USA. He is a painter, animator, illustrator and filmmaker, and Solomon is the co-founder of Sol Studios. He has a YouTube channel under the name Solomon Jagwe where he shares his creative journey to help fellow storytellers. He is the man behind the award-winning 3D animated short film Mkoza and Nankja in Jorvo, the Elephant Tale. He also created the Mkoza and Nankja app, where children are on the globe can learn Luganda. Thank you for tuning in and we hope you enjoy this episode.
Speaker 1:So, solomon, thank you so much for honoring this invitation to be here with us on the my African Aesthetic podcast. We are honored to have you as one of the guests.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much, Penina Eunice.
Speaker 2:We know that you're very busy and it's taken some time to get a hold of you. Me and Penina do not take any minutes that you give us for granted.
Speaker 3:Man, I'm telling you because I've been in that stage where you're growing something you know like from when I say my business here in the US to when I was starting my YouTube channel. I mean, you try to get contacts to talk to you. You know people that you know will make a difference and people say no all the time.
Speaker 3:So when someone invites me I have to remind myself to remember when you used to want people to you know, embrace your platform, yeah, so I truly know what it is the worth of showing up and talking to people.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate that.
Speaker 3:You know, there's something else that you probably didn't even know that you were doing. When I think about Doreen a dango, her passing is kind of really I mean it hit a lot of people hard, but what you've done is that you've captured a slice of her life to inspire other people you know, so I think that's why this is such a valuable platform.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, solomon, for those kind words. Doreen was such an inspiration. She was a mentor and she really challenged us to excellence, and she was one of the people who showed up for us on this show, so we really appreciate you saying that, but we also honor her legacy every time we have the opportunity to On those very amazing and special heels.
Speaker 1:Let's pick up the conversation. So we just like to start off the podcast. You know, trying to paint a picture for our listeners of who you are and what we'd like to capture in that very open-ended question of you know, tell us a little bit about where you grew up. We'd like to have you go back and think about you know, the things that were maybe stand out to you about your childhood. Tell us, you know, where you grew up. Any sights, sounds, smells, feelings, things about your childhood that come to mind that you could share.
Speaker 3:So thank you so much for inviting me to your podcast and I'm honored to be here. In terms of my upbringing, so I am a product of Masaka and so if you talk to people in Uganda who are from Masaka, when they say you know about Wuno like that's when you know that one some point is from Masaka, because for some reason we could not say Wuno we always say you know, you, lee, you know it's like. So there's a difference in what they call Wudu. Of course, in Masaka. Uganda is different from the Kampala Uganda, and so I grew up in a village called Via, somewhat deep in Masaka. So my upbringing starts at that point when I used to create little. You know stick figures using Kasaba. You know Mogo. So when my grandmother would dig up the Mogo, I would go and look at the thing that's left over and then I would break it into pieces and I start assembling little. You know buildings for little cows. You know so in Pupmumpu, that's the end of like the Matoke plant. So I would stick little sticks into the four of them to make a cow and so you make like a corral of some kind. So you're in a village, you don't have toys, but as a kid, you still want to play right. So that's where that's my early introduction to storytelling, because I was always trying to take the cows to pasture and maybe packing a little Mogo, because my grandmother, whenever she would go to the village rather to go to the garden to dig she would always pack Mogo like Kasaba, which is, I think, we call Yuka here in the US, and that's like those are the sounds and smells of. You know. I remember you know passion fruit was like it just grew wherever you went and just it was the soft kind and then there's the hard kind, you know, and so we would have fun just trying to break it up.
Speaker 3:And then my transition to the city came from the 1979 war. I really actually was part of that, like exodus from Masaka and all I was sent to the village to spend time with my grandmother and while my siblings were sent to another place. So it was really like it was a major, major disruption in our lives and for me it was almost like the start of one you know path and the end of another. But while I was in the village, I remember my grandmother used to sit me down in the evenings. So we didn't have radio. We didn't have TV, so we had no idea what was going on in the world.
Speaker 3:But the only thing that kept me entertained were those stories, you know, stories of what? Gulundene, which is the elephant, wakayma, which is the hair, wango, which is a leopard, you know so that she would retell those stories again and again, but every single time it will be a different moral attached to that story. So that's how I developed the love for storytelling and so, even later on in my life, I always drew on those stories because I really wanted to bring to life and also preserve that aspect of storytelling that my grandmother passed on to me.
Speaker 2:How was that transition? Like the one from the village to town, but also with the war. What do you remember from that time?
Speaker 3:The one thing that I do remember, because my dad and mom had a house near which was called Tropic Inn in Masaka, and my dad was the superintendent of the Masaka Hospital, so we used to see the pad air, the helicopter pad where our men used to actually land, you know. So when the war broke out, it's things like that that would just either get blown up or this disruption happened, and then we had to leave town right away. And then, of course, the Tanzanian soldiers came into Uganda from the border with Uganda right there, and we'll call them back home. Boys. Kids nowadays have no idea or even remember, have remembers of that. And even later on, when I experienced another coup, which was in 1986, with when you were in seven, came into power. So those were like major things.
Speaker 3:But our transition once the war ended, my parents moved us to Kampala, mutundwe here, and they sent us to boarding school. So my first boarding school that I attended was Macon's boarding school. It was actually deep in what they call the danger zone. They would drop us off at Norman Godino, which was like a place near off of Kampala Road, and the buses would call them Mugongo Gwemwa because it was carved like a dog kind of thing. So they would give us these bags that we put on top, and then they would put soldiers on those buses so that they could protect us as we drove through roadblocks and checkpoints until we got to Macon's boarding school, and so when the war again broke out, we were stuck at that site. So we didn't, I think so. Idi Amindad was overthrown by the Tanzanian soldiers, but then a series of other coups happened in between. There it wasn't just about coming in. There was Tito or Kelo Lutoah, there were other things were happening and there was security issues. So at one point in Macon's they would leave us for almost three months and maybe they would be like a visiting Sunday for parents.
Speaker 3:And I was in, I think, a nursery school while I was in boarding school, so we had house mothers that used to clean us, wipe us, like they took care of us. So we had some older kids, but then you had kids my age, and so you would come from baby class to middle class to top class in a boarding school and we would see these red tops. We used to have what they call panda gari, where buses would just come with these soldiers with red berets and then we just take people and you never see them again. So those are things that were happening around the school even as we're talking, and the headmaster's house had like a tank that we could see. Actually, I don't know if it was active at the time, but every after the war would go back because we were kids it's about military things would go and actually climb in the tank and look. So it's things like that.
Speaker 3:That as I was growing up and even later on when I came to the US, I ended up working for the Defense Department, working in the gaming industry, and there was like something that happened to me as a child that I started developing an affinity for militaristic kind of creations, the models that I made. I would make tanks, I'd make helicopters, I'll make soldiers, I'll play soldiers. You know how kids here in the US play cowboys and Indians. They would play rebels against government, soldiers kind of thing. And so I grew up in Motunwe and our school was kind of you get three months in school and then maybe like two to three weeks of vacation time. So we had very little time at home and most of the time was spent in boarding school. So you learn to fend for yourself and during that time.
Speaker 3:I remember when I was in Buldo Junior School, after I transferred from Maconsee boarding school, there was a time where, like they give you grab.
Speaker 3:We give you these metallic suitcases and you take them to school and you have like peanuts, you have sugar, you got cool things that you can have during the year, but then within like three weeks it's kind of gone, you know. And so I had to plan like okay, I know I don't have a lot, how can I get to make some more? And it kind of told me, like being an entrepreneur, because in that time we would get these blue burnt containers and I would actually make cars out of them and I would exchange them for grab. So I would make a car for somebody else and in time they would give me some sugar, they give me like bread and things like that. So that's what we say. It's. A boarding school taught me to first of all learn to work with people from different races, because the boarding schools you had kids from Chigazi or from other from the North, in Gulu, some from even Kenya in the central part of. So the boarding school was just like a rainbow of in terms of ethnicities when it comes to Uganda here.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting hearing you talk about the boarding school experience, because going to boarding school in Uganda is quite normal. I would say it's in a lot of ways it's part of our education experience, and from a very young age. And then, for you, I went to boarding school in high school, in secondary school, but you were in boarding school as early as nursery. And hearing you describe your experiences maybe even unconsciously learning about what it means to be an entrepreneur and trading, I think about how just the context of being in a boarding school teaches you self-sufficiency. But there's so many lessons outside the classroom.
Speaker 1:If anything, the lessons outside the classroom were sometimes way more practical and transferable to our little experience than what sometimes I imagine or learning in that classroom. So that's really interesting. But I'm curious to hear from you about what was happening inside the classroom, especially given the times that you were so.
Speaker 3:I'll give you a moment in time. For example, when in the 1986 school when I brought URM7 to power, present M7, we were in Budokinia school at the time and we had heart rumbling. So just one evening we're in class, you're learning about ABCs and things like that, and then the school starts flooding with people from the village. You're like what's going on? And then you realize we're being told that the rebels are closing in to Wusegat Kampala, the road all the way from Wusegat Kampala. And so as a child it was super exciting because I used to read comic books Tin Tin and Astrix and Obelix and those things that kind of brought like this is coming to us now. This is real, yeah. And then we saw during the night we saw the trucks pulling into the school and then young soldiers with big guns get out. That was my first experience with a child soldier. I'm like, oh my God, these are kids almost like P7. So we were I think I was that time we had like P7 students who like P7, p6, p5. That was the age of the Kado Ghaz. And yet I saw one of the Kado Ghaz actually commanding some other soldiers. I'm like so he has rank and he's a soldier and he has an AK-47. It blew my mind because I was like so here we are.
Speaker 3:First we're trying to learn inside of a classroom, but then you have these other children who are in a rebel outfit fighting to take over a country, restore whatever they think. I don't know what they were taught in the bush, but you could see like there was a total divide between us, the children who are in the school, and these children who are soldiers. You could see there was something different about their eyes because they didn't look like they were even like there. I don't know if they gave them drugs or something like that, but they were barking orders. I'd never seen a kid have authority before like that. We had prefects in school, right, but not that level. No, not that kind of authority when someone has a gun with live bullets.
Speaker 3:So it was exciting, scary at the same time, but also like life changing. Because for me, even later on, as I created comic books, as I started creating, like whenever I did write stories, I draw from that experience of things that we've gone through what it's like to be afraid as a child, not knowing, because our parents could not even come get us from the boarding school, because the road we're cut off, we're all on our own and some parents had I don't know if they had prior knowledge. I think those were parents who were like government officials knew, because I know like if you're a minister's child, those ones were taken out of the school before us, but the rest were left behind because our parents had no idea what was happening. It happened so quick, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you talked about your early interest in reading comics, storytelling. At what point in your education did you start to like piece together this thing of art and you starting to see yourself as someone that could actually do this?
Speaker 3:I have a story for that. So when I was in boarding school and I've shared this with some other people, I think one interview it's somewhere in the past. But there's a friend of mine at Macron's boarding school and he's, I think his family had links to Kenya, where you have these foreigners who own farms and their own horses. I'd never seen a horse in my life, I'd heard about it, and so when this guy told me that he could teach me how to draw a horse, I was like, okay, I am super excited to do this. And he told me if you want me to teach you how to do the horse, you have to give me half of your lunch every single day. And now we're in boarding school. You're not getting a lot of food anyway, so someone is asking you for half of your poachock, you know, and your beans to give it up so you could learn something.
Speaker 3:But I was so desperate to learn how to draw a horse so I said, okay, I'll do that. And so he never drew on a piece of paper, not once. He always drew in the sand. So Macron's boarding school used to be a lake bed, so when that lake dried out, there was like sand. Everywhere there are big rocks and sand. I don't know if it's still the same right now, but we used to play in that sand and draw it, almost like this white night sand. So he would draw in the sand and then right before after he's done finishing the head, he would kick dust into it, you know.
Speaker 3:So I was like, okay, I can't even you know how you have an opportunity to review and actually at least go back and look and try to recreate it. And so he really was smart at doing that. So I was like I had to develop this memory, memorization of art, and it taught me to be more observant than the other person. So every time I studied him I said, as he was drawing, I was over here, I didn't want to show him, I would draw on the side and trace it. I remember one time they took I think it was King's College they told us to draw without looking at the piece of paper. You look at the subject and over here your hand is actually moving.
Speaker 3:And I was like, oh my gosh, this is what I used to do in Macron's and they're teaching us how to do it here. So later in life I was like this guy, without even knowing, he was teaching me to learn how to draw without looking at the piece of paper, and so when he was done, I would look over and to see what I had done and I was like, okay, next time I have to do better. So in my mind I had to picture the horse. I had to understand and I started thinking like, okay, I would see cows and I see goats and I'll see their legs are similar to a horse. So I started correlating things. I'm like, ah, goats, a goat is like antelope kind of thing.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of like a cluster zebra to a horse. So I said, putting two and two together and that's how I got into loving wildlife. The more I wanted to draw a horse, the more I ended up studying wildlife to see what was similar to a horse that I could actually bring to life.
Speaker 1:Wow, those early listeners you were there doing blind corn to a drawing, not even knowing that's?
Speaker 3:it. Yeah, that's exactly what we did, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's so many expressions and words in Luganda that you're using to tell your story that bring back very, very interesting memories of growing up. You're not even struggling to or even trying to find a substitute for for words that are best expressed in Luganda. That expression comes out clearly. That's how you tell an authentic story globally by communicating in a global language, but also leaning into one's heritage, one's history and one's own culture, one's language, for for times when English, for example, doesn't have the vocabulary to express Our experiences. And this brings me to our next question how did you end up in the USA? Why the USA and how did you get there?
Speaker 3:I'm telling you I think we need like three hours for me to paint like a picture of my journey here, but all I can say is that I met a lady on a plane out of Entever Airport and her name is Hazel. Call it. I always ask for permission for me to share this story with the world because she's been an integral part of me coming here. And the way things happened was that I had gone to King's College. I went from Boudot Junior School to King's College, Boudot to Macquarie College School. So I did my senior one and senior four in King's College, Boudot, and then senior five and senior six at Macquarie College School.
Speaker 3:And after finishing high school, which is really senior six, I was at a crossroad. I wanted to do like to bring my stories to life, but I didn't even know what animation was. I knew it was something I could draw, I could sculpt, I could paint. I used to sell my paintings in Uganda, my sculptures. But I wanted to bring those things to life and I didn't know how. And then one day, when I was I remember being in Boudot Junior School we had a friend of ours called Luidika, and for those of you who are listening from Boudot Junior School, you know exactly what I'm going to say. So they had a VCR at home, right, Every time he would come back from holidays. He had these stories that he would share with us, he would tell us films. You know that, John Rambo, you know, like that's like first blood. That was one of the first action films that I remember.
Speaker 3:And so he would bring it to life. He would like tell the story. I looked at this guy and I'm like I actually see the film you know, without he would. He was so expressive, he was such a beautiful storyteller that it made me want to do what he was doing. Right In a level you have to speak like a certain you know set of classes that you want to do. I did history, economics, literature and art and fine art, and so for me that was really taken towards, because I loved history. I like learning about you know places and people so I can know how to tell stories, and also I need to know economics. I wanted to know, learn about how to even set a studio how do you budget to make a film and things like that and in literature, being able to write and then art, of course, bring the visual part to it, and so I've always wanted to tell stories that way.
Speaker 3:But during my vacation my senior, sixth vacation I was I interned for an Indian gentleman. His name is Alnougo Vengie. I was at home one day and my relative of mine called me and said they needed someone to do a mural on like a Photoshop building right next to Uganda House on a Kampala Road. So you look up this diamond trust up at the top I don't know if it's still the same now, but the building is right next to Uganda House and they needed a mural. They had a Photoshop, they did something similar to what was being done at Diamond Trust, but they didn't get the client. So he said I need someone to people to know where I am. So he gave me the contract and he asked me to paint a mural. So I painted this like a heart with a magic wand, but instead of a rabbit coming out of it, it was a real of like the cartridge, the film cartridge. People don't use cartridges nowadays, but those old cameras had cartridges where you had to process the film. So they were doing that and so I painted that and the traffic picked up because people could see his shop right from Diamond Trust when you're looking down.
Speaker 3:And when I finished my interview the contract he said are you interested in computers? Because I see you doing art. I said I am interested in computers. They said well, I can teach you Photoshop if you like. If you work for free. He said I'm not going to pay you, but I'll give you like money for, like just the transport from where you're coming from.
Speaker 3:You know there was that stigma that Indians you know Indian businessmen would take advantage of Ugandan people. Right, they would. They don't pay you. So I was like man, you know. I mean my senior sixth vacation and my parents are expecting me to contribute to their household at some point, so I need to make money. Right, because my friends had gone on to Macquarie University. They were going on to Macquarie University because a lot of them had already applied.
Speaker 3:I remember being sent home because we didn't have a school phase and I missed filling out the form to when you want if you wanted to go to a certain university. So I was in that transition. But this gentleman picked me up, gave me an industrial training and every evening he would put, set me aside and teach me Photoshop and during the day I'll help with the photo, producing of the photos and also selling APCs. We used to cover these power like backups, sell them on a compiler road for different companies, and so that was my introduction to art. You know, this gentleman taught me and he gave me that foundation to.
Speaker 3:Actually, when I got so, I eventually applied to a school here in the US and I got a scholarship to do like fine art, but I didn't have the money for the tuition. That's when this lady comes into the picture. So I got the visa. I actually tried three times. I got denied the first time, the second time and eventually the third time I got the visa to go to the US and at that time there was like a really, really tough ambassador. On the third try the ambassador had been like switched out. So some, some of the policies were loosened, I think, and so somehow it lined up and I got the visa to come to the US for my I-20 visa, and so the process is tough.
Speaker 3:But so I had three days to get to the university. They told me you have to be here on August 26, 1996. And I this is the 23rd, so I didn't have the money. So it's a gentleman that had come to the US from the US asking me. He said if I, if you help me, start up my business, I'll help pay for your tuition, rather for your ticket. So we did that for three days like industrial trade, like high intense training for the team that he had. I was teaching them computer graphics and how to handle computers. So the lady that I'm talking about. Hazel had a dream the night of the 26th that she had to be on a flight out of Anteba Airport. My ticket was given to me on the 26th. That's how, like I'm just trying to paint a picture, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:I said we'd be like three hours. But she had a dream and she said that in the dream she was, she had to be on this flight, specific flight, and so she bought the ticket. She had seven more days left in Uganda. She was on a holiday actually. She said she had come to visit and she was actually planning to go track the mountain gorillas in Bwindi, I believe and she obeyed. She's like you know what. This is such a strong feeling, and for me, I was praying. So I was at the airport. I had never flown, I'd been on a plane before. I didn't even know if I had to buy the foot on the plane. I was praying.
Speaker 3:I'm a person of faith and so I really. I was just young because I didn't even know much about God, I didn't believe much about God, but at that point it was like my introduction to growing in my faith, and so I remember they had told me that if you, if God, would take care of the lilies, he would dress the, he would take it over the bars, and at that time I'm just recounting what it felt like. It was so brand new. So this lady walks up to me because she had had me talk to the person on the counter and tells me that so you need help. I said, yeah, I need help. And she said, well, I have 5,000 Ugandan shillings. I'm going back to the UK, I won't need it. Are you hungry? And I remember thinking they had told us in I think it was a prayer group when you ask God, he'll actually bring people and they will actually minister to, just like that. And so she, I was like, okay, so God is real. I mean, this thing's happening for real. So she, we sit down.
Speaker 3:And she asked me where I'm going to sit. I told her that I have a seat by the window and there was another gentleman seated next to me and I remember praying specifically. You know how guys in Uganda, we are proud. We don't want to show that we don't know anything. At least you know we're not everyone, and I don't want to stereotype, but like guys really don't want to show weakness. And I was growing up from that kind of culture. And but I prayed and I said you know what? God, please help me bring a woman so that I don't have to talk to a guy show weakness. And so the lady talked to this guy and they switched out seats so the other guy sat where she was going. So she sat next to me and she walked me through. She said so listen, if you have a layover, get dry food, like those cookies that are in a bag non perishable things so that you can sit. So she helped me through the whole process.
Speaker 3:I remember the plane taking off and me feeling sick. She walked me through. She was like a mother at that point, and at this point I didn't even know that she had had the dream. She didn't know herself. You know where she was headed. So we met. We had an eight hour layover in Brussels and she had eight for our layover. So she continued to the UK. But she gave me her contacts and said if you ever need someone to pray with, let me know. And I remember that I told her that one thing that I wish I could have brought was a guitar, because I used to play in the worship band, and so she said she gave me pocket money and I was able to buy a guitar once I got to the US.
Speaker 3:But once I got to the US, the school cast me when is your tuition? Why are you not at the school, I'm like? But you gave me a scholarship. We did not give you a full scholarship. You have to come up with the rest of the money, and this is 1996, or $5,000 per semester.
Speaker 3:What was a lot of money. I couldn't call home and tell my parents, in Mumbai or in Kometani, you know. It was just impossible for me to. So I called the lady. It was at night. She had told me to call her. So I said please, I need prayer. When is someone to pray with me? So she prayed with me and then the next day the school calls me up and said why do you not at the airport? I'm like what do you mean? So someone has paid for your ticket to come to the school, and so I get to the school. And then I get to the school, they said but I don't have the money for the tuition. Say, no, someone has paid all your tuition until you graduate and so and this is this is like amazing.
Speaker 3:So that's my journey coming to the US, even me, learning how to do animation, learning art. It's because I always have Hazel call it, because she invested in my education without expecting anything in return. You know, she paid for the first time I graduated. She paid for my rent, she set up a way of supply, helping me until I got her full time job. In my full time job, the first job that I did was in turning for the Pentagon. I was attached to a defense contract that was serving the Pentagon here in DC and that's how I got into the animation and gaming industry. After graduating from Montgomery College and coming yeah.
Speaker 1:Miss Hayz, wherever you are, if you stumble upon this podcast. Thank you so much for investing in our brother, because encounters like that can't be planned.
Speaker 3:I'd never met her, I'd never seen her before, but for her to be obedient, you know, and then to finally see, okay. So this is the reason why I was on this plane out of Entebbe Airport. It was to meet this gentleman. And you know what's amazing? That even as we corresponded later on, I found out she had a heart for orphans. She really wanted to support Ugandans, and so I think it was maybe a year after we graduated somewhere there, we talked about how she wanted to go back to Uganda, you know, and I said, and so she traveled to Uganda and connected with a young gentleman in Busheini who had a heart for his village. So we bought a piece of land together and we started an organizer show.
Speaker 3:Right now, as I speak, I'm on the board of directors and she was a director at the time and we say it was just a small piece of land, but as we speak it's in Busheini and in Shumi, so it's called Jeje in Shumi, and we say that it's just a small piece of land, but as we speak there's a primary school, there's a secondary school, there's a technical school, you know, and we're serving over 900 students Among. Most of them are actually orphans, because in that area. A lot of parents have died because of AIDS. So the school offers free education to where, if you can't pay, just come, you know, start join the school if your parents are able to contribute in terms of resources or they can help build some of the buildings or do whatever, and then some of the students after the graduate, they come back and help teach. But that has been the legacy. Is that right now, the thing that that obedience that she had has led to over 900 other Ugandans get an education and be given an opportunity to make a living.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's that. That's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing that story and I can only imagine, like you had you had no, no excuse not to excel in school at this one. I can imagine the young Ugandan in you at that point, the fire to like now go on and actually study and and and you know, make the most of this opportunity that came from God, clearly. So what was college like? How did you so? You come from Uganda, having gone through all the experiences you had from the time you were, you know, young, moving from Masaka to to the city, going up in the midst of some really different military cause, to finding your way in the US. In this completely different context, how, how did you navigate your college experience and maybe just right away to like give us an overview of what that meant for your practice? How did you shape this thing.
Speaker 1:You know you found 3D and you know you love technology. You're putting it all. How did you put all this together and how did you know what does it look like?
Speaker 3:So I think I mean and I pray that young people listening in actually pay attention to this the thing, the opportunities that you're given early on. Don't take them for granted, because they that time that I spent with that gentleman, alnugovindji, the Indian businessman, that foundation, even though I was not paid, became the foundation that actually gave me like a springboard of some sort when I attended college, because the classes that who are taking this guy had already introduced me to all of them. My freshman year was a breeze because Alnugovindji had taken the time to invest in me. Now I look back I'm like man. Had I said no, you have to pay me. You know, had I like missed out on that opportunity of doing that industry training for free? You know that essentially it was an internship. I would have missed out on moving so much faster during my classes and my getting favor from my professors as a result and it was let me.
Speaker 3:It was difficult to transition from a Uganda where computer technology wasn't like a thing, to coming to the US where you have to submit your essays on a floppy disk. Well, we had floppy disks at the time. You know, back then you actually had to put two of them into the computer to boot it up, those things like DOS 6 and, you know, windows 3.1, people don't know that here nowadays but we used to hand in our essays, you know, sometimes printed, sometimes on those floppy, used to have a typewriter class. You know, nowadays it's not even a thing. Now there's AI where you dictate everything you know. But it was a big. It was a shocker in terms of climate. It was a shocker in terms of the culture of the people, the language you know because we speak a certain kind of English.
Speaker 3:I remember going to an English class. I signed up for honors because I done literature enough, all level and a level. So I was like there's no way I'm going to do like a starter class when I've done all these things. You know Chinua Chibi, you know the light and the jewel. We did these things. We discussed, we wrote essays, you know. So I was like I really I know English Guys.
Speaker 3:We come from a missionary school where they taught us English from P1 to P6, to P7, all the way. So they were trying to like, when you come as a foreigner, they think you don't know English and so they want you to start from the ground level. So they told me to. I had to take a class to prove myself and I did in the honors class. So I remember when I turned in my paper there were so many crosses and checkmarks and things like that. I looked at them. I'm like, okay, so the word humor doesn't have a U here in the US, so they crossed that out.
Speaker 3:Endeavor, you know flavor, it's like color, you know, it's like there's certain things that are so different here that they penalize you for using what we call the Queen's English, so like we had two types of English. And so one time I remember, even when I interact with my fellow students, I remember one student told me hey, someone, do you want to come play basketball with us? I said, no, man, I am tired, and say, and then he said, take care. And that had I had a physical reaction. We told me to take care because in Uganda we all the memories of the coups and you know having to duck, you know when anti-eclectic lines are going off and things like that. So when he told me to take care, I'm thinking, my goodness, am I concerned about bullets, you know? So it's like language is so dynamic. Small words like that make a big difference, right? So I remember walking by and seeing like a homeless person. I didn't even think in the US they were homeless people. I could not believe that a fast world country had homeless people. And so the gentleman asked me do you have a quota? And I'm like I don't have a quota. I don't even know what a quota was. And that's a currency you know because you have the dollar bill, you have the cents, you have the. You know five cents and 25 cents, so things like that.
Speaker 3:I remember when I saw an interesting story when I was at college. The first day of college is when I met my wife and I remember walking up to a vending machine and thinking it was a robot. And now this is me the sci-fi bike, because I really liked science fiction. And so when I walked up to the vending machine I thought I really thought it was a robot and I said talking to it. So my wife she was a student at the time was sitting watching and they had heard that there was this international student that was coming in from Uganda, coming to the university. So she was like, oh my gosh, he looks so sad.
Speaker 3:So I'm over there struggling with this machine talking to it. It's not responding. I'm like what's wrong with this thing, you know? And so she walks up to me and says do you need help? And then I turn around and so she's African American. I look at her and I'm like man, she has beautiful eyes, so it's almost like love at first sight. And so I'm thinking okay, when I saw her, something moved inside of me like this is the one. So I even forgot about the robot for a second and she said so, do you need something?
Speaker 3:from here she said yeah, I said I was trying to get something, so she put some money in. And you know how we are in Uganda. I kind of. I study history and economics and so whenever we get aid to Uganda there's always like strings attached, especially from Western countries, and so America to me looked like the police of the world, always dangling things so they could get back in. So I had a negative view of Americans, right, and I was also told don't marry a foreign woman. They're gonna take all your things, they will divorce you and take all your money. I was like yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was like coming from that kind of a stereotypical kind of thing. But so for her to give me something, you know, and I was like, oh, wow, there are kind Americans out here. But of course I was like she's beautiful, so she goes back and sits down and I sit down, some like okay, gosh, this is the one and you've just moved in my life, you just opened up a door for all my tuition and everything. So I'm gonna trust you one more time, like okay, if she's the one, I'm praying that she comes to me and says this exact word. And so I sat and waited, waited, waited, but she wasn't coming over and I said, god, you said you're gonna be faithful.
Speaker 3:I remember they told us and that's you know, bible study thing that you know, when we talk to you, you're faithful, you know. I said, yeah, this is the opportunity. Show me that you're real. And then so I'm sitting there, then she walks up to me and she says the exact words that I told her. And I told her I remember thinking, okay, this is gonna be my wife and I think I'd had a meeting with one of the counselors.
Speaker 3:I found that they didn't have animation. So I actually was in the process of transferring to a different university because they had given me a scholarship or do fine art. But then they I found out that you could actually change your major, so I wanted to do animation and so I was like okay, I know I'm here for a brief time at this school. So I wrote a letter to her telling her you're going to be my wife, you know this is all I have, you know.
Speaker 3:So I gave the letter to her and a week later I remember walking into the student center and she had shared it with all her friends and I felt like I wanted the ground to swallow me because the one was looking at me, pointing at me and things like that. I'm like, oh God, please help me. So she told her mom and her mom told her you need to get a restraining order because it sounds like a stalker. I had no idea about the cultural norms here. Black men, you don't do that to a black woman. You don't just walk up and tell things like that.
Speaker 3:So, you guys know exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 3:So now you know they said 2020 hindsight. Of course, now I do things totally different, but I'm so glad I was bold and actually approached her. But so we she eventually moved to Florida, told for two years over there. I moved over here to Maryland, did like my two year associate of applied science degree in art, so I, working with a you know, advanced contractor, I worked for the company for eight years, so eventually she moved. We got married in 2000 and we have two beautiful kids right now. But that's how the meeting happened, that my school experience led to me meeting my future wife.
Speaker 4:Yes, Wow, that's so beautiful. That's the vending machine, all the robots.
Speaker 3:I'd have vending machine. Yes, whenever I walk by a vending machine, I need her. Like remember, and we always laugh about that yeah, but, solomon, now you've changed my whole.
Speaker 4:You know, I'm not so attracted to vending machines, but from today onwards I'm going to have a totally different, you know association to the beautiful association, so to say. Wow, wow, wow. Now this is. We can just continue speaking about this. I now understand when you said we need three hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Because there's so many other things that I have to. I have had to live out in the story. So many incredible things have happened between me and Hazel anyway. But overall, people that and when I'm talking to the students out there when you're given an opportunity, take advantage of it right and also be proactive in everything that you're doing. Because the things that I learned in Uganda are coming back to bear here.
Speaker 3:You know, because I remember we used to go in taxis on Kampala Road and I used to live in Mutundwa, so we had like portholes all the way through and this was the time before the road, there was investment in infrastructure and the roads being repaired and things like that. So I remember being in a taxi one time, bouncing up and down and things like that. I didn't even know that that experience would someday come to bear, because I remember being given an assignment at the this is the defense contractor gaming studio and I was asked to animate a Humvee with soldiers in it, right and driving through Somalia. The initial pass was just so smooth. The Humvee just goes forward. But I remember I'm like you know what, when in Africa there's no, we're gonna have roads that are so clean. Somalia is no different from us. They're gonna have portholes too. So if soldiers are in a Humvee and they're going through the roads in Somalia, they're gonna be portholes. So you have to understand dynamics and things like that.
Speaker 3:And I remember our physics teacher, mr Williams. I love him to death but he told us about physics, reaction, even in biology, the things, the classes that I thought were boring and were useless because I thought I was an artist. I'm finding them to be actually helpful for me as an animator, as an artist, because when it comes to chemistry, I understand effects like smoke, you know like water and things like that. I understand the properties of things like when you're creating an environment, when a gun goes off, when something explodes. You know those are things that we're learning in a physics class and in biology we used to study anatomy and I didn't understand it, to come later on to help me when I'm modeling a character, when I'm modeling a soldier, when a soldier's carrying a gun, the weight of the gun, the backpack, when he has to learn, when he has to jump. You know helicopters, understanding shadows, you know penumbra and an umbrella. Those things we learned in between senior one and senior six and I used to think that as an artist, those things didn't matter in my life, but they do.
Speaker 3:You know, all those classes matter and they come. Even geography, shiakazulu, you know the twezi, all those things that we used to learn in school. They come hand because now we're talking about military history, when we're teaching strategy to soldiers, those things come back, you know. And how Napoleon I thought Napoleon would never have bearing in my life. But then here I am working with the Defense Department, understanding about war strategy. You know, I'm like man, my teacher remember in senior four teaching us those things about shiakazulu, the strategy of how they used to encamp. You know they can suck the enemy. You know those things count. So as you're going through university, make sure that every class that you're attending that you're paying attention, because those things are gonna come handy.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I'm really glad you you hope to emphasize just that attention to not just context but to the application of the various things that you're learning in the classroom in your everyday experiences and how those could in turn impact your learning and your ability to master a skill, one of the things I think that poses somewhat of a challenge, which I maybe not so much in the developed context, but in the developing context when it comes to pursuing tech-related career pathways or any career that has the involvement of new technologies.
Speaker 1:We don't often have the same kinds of resources and there's a big technological divide that exists. What are some things that you would encourage a young person who okay, maybe you might not have like going back to experience of drawing in the sand yes, you did have paper and here was your friend during the sand, but it helped you, it helped your observation of skills and your ability to engage your muscle memories right. So what are some things that young people who are interested maybe in this area, but maybe don't have the tech right away, can start to do to hone those skills in their ways.
Speaker 3:So I'm telling you that growing up in Uganda, even in all its hardships, was such a good thing for me because I remember working from Nalukorongo, going past Roko there used to be like a plant over there that was called Roko and then going through Katwe along that road. Before you get to the clock tower, there was a group of artisans that would make these sigiris. I used to actually stop and watch them. They would get scraps and make something beautiful out of it. And for me, that road I cannot emphasize enough how its importance is to improvise, like when you're faced with a lack of resources. You have to learn to use what you have. Because, seeing these guys, I remember when I I went to this animated movie that I was trying to make called the Adventures of Galwango right, this is again. And I wanted to make like a head mounted camera rig and I remember thinking, okay, how am I? I don't have enough money. Those rigs were costing about $3,000, $4,500 to buy, but I wanted to still capture my official performance of the character that I was trying to make. I don't know if you guys have watched Avatar, but James Cameron uses a lot of motion capture for his movies and they do, like the Navi, like when they are playing the characters, they have to the person that is playing the character. They have to track their performance both on the body and also on the face. So I drew on those that inspiration from those guys from Katwe, learning how to what I did. I took my wife's, I borrowed my wife's helmet, bike helmet. I took my guitar stand, took out the end, tied it on top of the helmet, put my cell phone, tied it with a zip tie onto the cell phone and was able to capture that, you know, and I was able to record the facial animation. That's and I remember wanting to. There's a film that I'm still working on called the Oblamuech, so the Galwango, because I still believe in wildlife conservation and I really want to. Okay, that's a story. It's a totally different story, but improvisation, that's how I was able to bring this story to life and even with Inkoza and Nanja, I'll run in the process.
Speaker 3:So the Inkoza and Nanja came to be because my wife is African American and I'm Ugandan, so we have like a mixed culture household and we're trying to create something that would help our kids learn about our culture and learn my language, and my wife was a stay at home mom for about six years and she asked me could you please help me with some resources? And there was nothing that I could find that could help us. So that's where the app. I created an app and said putting information that she could use together with our kids. But Inkoza and Nanja, the way it came to be. I was in boarding school at Virginia school because it's a missionary school.
Speaker 3:Uganda many people, of course, many Ugandans, know that we were colonized by the British, but we were told we could not speak vernacular. We could not speak what they call it vernacular. We could not speak our native languages. They beat us, they shamed us. If you spoke a native language, one word. They put a sackcloth on you and you had sitstands in the quadrangle. You know they're just shaming you for speaking your language, and I remember thinking I need to do something about this whenever I get the opportunity to do so. And so, initially, inkoza and Nanja was just for our two kids.
Speaker 3:The more I interacted with parents here in the diaspora, I found out that there's so many parents who are going through the same thing, whose kids don't speak our language, who they don't know anything about their roots, you know and the more while you're here in the diaspora, they actually look at you as a phrocentric. They don't say you're Ugandan because they don't know your heritage. And if you don't know your heritage you're gonna be considered just black. You're just a black kid in a school right, and you forget that you have a history, you have a language, you have a people. Uganda is blessed with so many languages and so many like folk tales and songs and things like that. So I was determined, like whenever I get a gotten opportunity, I'll bring to life those things.
Speaker 3:So that's how Inkoza and Nanja came to be, and so I am on a quest to help parents and you know, not just in the diaspora but in Uganda, because I understand even international schools kids don't speak languages, our languages anymore. You know they speak English and they actually look down on people who speak a native language and I don't want that. We were ashamed. We were ashamed to do that when we were growing up. We shouldn't carry on. That should not be the legacy. We are such a beautiful people and you know we have. We come from different parts of Uganda, but we are one. We are Ugandans at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:But the trend here usually is when, especially is when, the kids start to discover themselves, like around 16, 17, 18, yeah, 19, 20, where they start, they actually are forced to look in who am I? They're actually beginning to define for themselves, cause up until then their mom and dad have done that job, they've told them you are so-and-so and so you are so-and-so and so. But when they start to speak for themselves and they have to stand up for themselves and you know they have to be they have to find their own identity, define it and express it. Then, language, culture, heritage, food, all those stories that are your own, the ones that make you you.
Speaker 2:If you don't have them and if it hasn't been cultivated, if you're not lucky enough to have a dad like Solomon or many other parents who are engaged in communicating this other part of the culture, and here in Oslo, even in households in Norway at least, because this is where I live even in households where both parents are African and even from maybe the same country, it is difficult to communicate this because these children, they have enough out there. You know, they're going to school, they're speaking in my case they're speaking Norwegian and they have to integrate, they have to participate in the contexts in which they are. But the scary part is when they are approaching 16 and above and they have to start speaking for themselves, then it's a dilemma when they have nothing, no roots, nothing to ground them, and then they lose themselves. So what you're doing is very, very, very important.
Speaker 3:And it's important. I mean what you just said losing themselves. Because we did lose a part of ourselves because I spoke more English by the time I left Uganda than I spoke Luganda, you know and so you find yourself traveling to the village and you can't really express yourself with your grandmother because you don't know, they've bitten it out of you, they've shamed it out of you and make it seem like it could be in Bogor. You know, like when you like, you know those things.
Speaker 3:Yeah you know, so even now we have like a Luganda Academy here in the DMV where we are encouraging parents to be part of the network of. We have online class. I think the pandemic was a turning point, because before we used to meet in person, we were actually fewer numbers, but when the pandemic happened 2020, everything got shut down, so we started having to meet online. So we have more than I think, more than 20 students at a time, because now opportunities open up where people can tune in, you know, sign up and things like that. But we're trying to do our best to help these kids and I think what they of course, are Nantia app and R-Series and Quentin does. We're trying to find that foundation. Build that foundation early on, because if you don't start there, you wait too long. Because I know my kids once they grew up. They're teenagers now and I can see the struggle as well. Because if you don't start early and that's my regret I wish I'd started way earlier than I did but the reason I built this tool because I know the pain or what it's like when you're trying to get your child to speak your language and there's like a disconnect and things like that. So I encourage parents please spend time with your kids, read to them in Uganda or whatever language you're to speak, even if it's a Choli, you know Angkore. Whatever it is, speak to them in that language so they can start hearing it. If they don't hear it from you, it's gonna be difficult for them to do it.
Speaker 3:You can attend classes, but it's different because there's that Omanango. Or you get the Nayanum Ganba in Kwaagara Nyo. You know there's that thing. That happens because now they associate the language with the love part of it. You know, or in Kustans, or Kosemulunji Omri-Mulunji Nyo. You know, now you're encouraging them, but you're using your language. So now the language starts being positive as opposed to something they just say to learn. They understand that when you go to Uganda, when you go to a market, you know someone will say Ii Sebo. Yeah, you know, there are certain things that we say in Uganda that have layers upon layers, like a mom can look at you and say eh, eh, mm. You know. Things like that. That's language.
Speaker 3:But, those things happen when you are interacting with a person. I mean, we're trying to animate it. We can create animations, but there's something organic that happens when a mom or a dad is talking to a child, you know, hug them and then say something positive in your language, and that's how they start to relate to the positivity of the language and the culture.
Speaker 2:And you said something about your wife, who is African-American in that period, asking you for resources. Yes.
Speaker 2:Because what I've noticed is like there are also many parents who are parenting.
Speaker 2:You know, they're maybe British or they're German or they're Norwegian, and then they're married to an African partner and they really are engaged, they're interested, they actually want to do it and this is where we have to face it that the way the world has been, as you said, even in Uganda, in our own country, in our own schools, we were punished for speaking our own languages, even just greeting, you know, even just even if it wasn't in a violin, we're just having a conversation.
Speaker 2:So you can imagine how far we have to go. First we know a foreign language more than we know our own, and then imagine moving from your context, like you said, into another context, losing a lot of the day-to-day interaction and then trying to get that and give it to your children. So I'm thinking this whole platform is not just for African parents, or like Ugandans to say this, and Baganda in that case, but it's also an example of how it can be done in other African languages, in other languages in Uganda, and it's a resource that other parents can use that are not African or Ugandan descent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, One thing that I also add on my grandmother I mean the legacy that she passed on to me, I mean during that difficult time of war is I'm seeing the value of that, because she spent time with me telling me these stories right? And if we are not willing to carry on that legacy, our history dies, our stories die, our language dies off. There have been cases where languages literally die off in this day and age. So I think we need to carry on the legacy of our grandparents and continue that story telling aspect of it. And it starts there. A language starts with how you can tell your people where they came from, where they are right now and where they are going, and to treasure that aspect of it.
Speaker 3:Then it leads out to the rest of society, because in Uganda, for example, in Buganda Kingdom, there's something that the Naba Gerek, the queen of Buganda, always emphasizes and that is Obuntuplam. Obuntuplam is so important in Uganda because they teach you to be loving and that's why I think they say Ugandan is one of the most friendly people in the world, because you're told to be kind, you're told to respect your elders, you're told to do this current generation not so much you know, but it's important for us to carry on that legacy of respect, and Obuntuplam translates to here being respectful. You know they expect you to be respectful to your classmates. Guess what? Those are things that were passed on to us by our grandparents and we need to carry it forward, and if you don't do that for your children they are children and their children are going to miss out on that as well. So that's why I talk about legacy a lot.
Speaker 1:That is incredible. Solomon, I really wish you had more time to keep diving into some of these we'd love to keep talking about, but I think you've really helped bring to life the value of knowing who you are and where you come from and being proud of it and having a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation, and there's just been so many great lessons in there. Something that I feel like would be helpful for you to have an opportunity to talk about is you're also a freelance artist. Yes, and with freelancing comes lessons glean from entrepreneurship. I know a lot of young people in Uganda, and even the content at large, are having to find ways to come up with ideas that can pay the bills. How, in thinking about how you've been able to, I think you've had opportunities to work in different sectors and for different people and groups, but you also manage your freelance business. What are some core lessons you've learned from that and what are some things you could share with us?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one thing that I think I learned in the process when I was starting out, I reached a point where I transitioned to doing I think it was 2009. I'd worked for in the industry up to that point, I think, for like almost 15,. No, I'd done eight years prior with another company up to 2005. And then 2009, I worked for another defense contractor and then 2009 is when I really embarked on creating the Galwango film. I partnered with the Uganda Wildlife Authority and that's ability to connect it's a game that I picked up from boarding school helped a lot.
Speaker 3:But also having a passion for something, because anytime you are as an artist, as a storyteller, if you don't have a passion for something, you won't feel motivated to even learn the tools of the trade. You have nothing that can drive you to do it when you're not being paid. And for me, galwango became like that passion because I really wanted to share the story of the Batwa in a windy, how they got displaced from that national park because they were trying to protect the mountain gorillas. But then I also wanted to tell the story of the rangers who are protecting the mountain gorillas from extinction. At the time the numbers were just like 700 or something like that, and I was really on a quest. I wanted to use storytelling and animation to do that. Part of that has taught me again to be proactive and to learn about marketing, to understand opportunity, to understand budgets and cycles, because it's very easy to think that you can go into like, if you're trying to do get a gig in Uganda, they are budget cycles. You know, like people don't just pick up money and say they're going to spend it. People have planned it through the year. So you need to understand when those budgets are made and know when to pitch an idea, because you could pitch in the middle of a budget cycle and you actually think that people don't like the work that you're doing, but you just don't have the right time. You didn't time it correctly. And also for freelance work, you need to have a website, a portfolio of some kind where you actually put your resources.
Speaker 3:Because I remember when I graduated from Montgomery College soon after I did the associate of applied science degree the first thing that I did after once I graduated was spend at least a month building my website. I took all the things that I knew. I started looking at job entries, looked at the things that they were looking for and this was. I knew I was going to have an opportunity to apply for that internship job that I did but I wanted to show that I know I didn't have a bachelor's degree. I know I was going to compete with people with fine arts degrees you know could be even someone with a PhD in art. So I wanted to separate myself by saying, okay, I may not have a bachelor's degree at this point, I may not have, like a fine arts, you know, a master's, but I have this portfolio. So I made sure I drew sketches of everything that if I, if they're going to ask for someone doing a concept art or storyboarding, I want it to be that person. I want it to show that, hey, I can take it from a simple stick figure to the finished product. So I have, I had pages that show when I start a sketch to the point when I finish it If I did like a 3D environment, from when I said like with just a box, to when it's fully rendered.
Speaker 3:And so it's important as a freelancer to have a portfolio. And there are ways to do it. You could just go to wordpresscom and sign up with a like a blog, so that you don't have to pay. Or, if you have the money, sign up for a domain name that speaks to the kind of branding that you want and make sure that it speaks to the kind of work that you want. Don't just pick a funny name that when people are trying to remember you, they type it in and they don't even you know relate to what you're doing Right. So for me, I at the time they they were very at the time, I think when I signed up for sawcom S O W O dot com, it was very. It was easy to get a four letter you know domain name. Nowadays it's almost impossible to find like a four letter domain name. So I I feel I had to put my name in there. But also saw, you know, like a play on Word X, saw studios and things like that.
Speaker 3:So even later on, saw studio became came from that website so and so that helped me. So when I went to apply for that job, I shared my portfolio. I even looked at the website of the company what the things they had done. I took some of the things that they had done made them look better so that when I come into your interview I'm like hey, look, I can even improve what if there's no like contract right now. If you have something that needs improvement, I can do that as well. That's how you break it, you know, into the interest. But what I did so 2009 did that show film, but then I got my studio got broken into. Someone robbed all my equipment or three years worth of work was gone, and so I went back to working full time Right.
Speaker 3:So during that time is when I transitioned. I did an. I was an art director for VR studio based in DC. I did a creative director for another VR studio, but then I, on the side I had started saw studios because I realized, in the US at least, if you want to scale up, if you want to get opportunities with bigger companies, you can't be an individual. You actually have to have an LLC, because they see risk when they see an individual, when they see you as a studio, as an LLC, they see protection and they see the continuity, they know they can trust you and that's where you get bigger contracts as a freelancer, you know, as a result.
Speaker 3:So even when I said my YouTube channel, I did not know this until my wife, you know, sent me a video, walked me through and said look at what this person is doing. And they said that YouTube channel, but they had not done an LLC. And it's like you're going to get to a point where you're going to grow in that money, the IRS is going to come looking at you Right. So you need to set the foundation right now for the growth. Like if you're building a skyscraper, you need to dig deeper. You know you can't stay settled like a shallow foundation and then try to build a Bangalore and then all of a sudden you want to build a skyscraper and then put build on top of the Bangalore. No, that will collapse. Build a good foundation deep, deep down, so that when you scale up. So my channel now is almost at 24,000 views and back then when I said out, had I not built that into it, I wouldn't be getting the kind of contracts or partnerships with big companies that come in and sponsor because they know they are protected, they know they can send you, they send you a bill, you know you can pay your own taxes, you're covered and things like that you know.
Speaker 3:So it's very important to see yourself as a business, don't just see yourself as an individual. If you want to, you can go and be an individual for whatever length you want, but if you really want bigger contracts, you need to consider being an LLC and taking some business classes as well, because that's something I did not have. I don't remember being taught how to do business as an artist when I was in school, so I had to actually go read books. I had to watch YouTube videos, you know, and look at other YouTubers who are successfully doing this, who have scaled up, like Mr Beast is a business right now on YouTube right, and Marquis Brownlee, the like the take go to person. He's a business. He has a business that actually does all these things. So you need to consider that as you're growing. So don't think small, think where could I grow into and then build that kind of foundation?
Speaker 2:You've touched on so many projects now and you speak with so much passion for all of them, and that is understandable. But can you point out one project where you feel? Like this is my favorite and why I have two.
Speaker 3:I have two of them.
Speaker 2:Okay, you too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the adventures of Nantia is on the top of the list because of the passion for culture and I'm trying to build a legacy that, even as if I'm off of this planet, people will continue to use that app and continue to teach kids, because babies are always going to be born, they'll always be Ugandan babies, they'll always be people who are, you know over, ugandan descent, trying to get into the language. So I want that app to be there forever. So I remember I'm a grown man, but I still enjoy Tom and Jerry. It cracks me up.
Speaker 3:It cracks me up, but it was built a long time ago. I look at Disney. How he said his company. He was fired from his job where he used to work as an illustrator. Then he said his business and look at where we are now.
Speaker 3:Disney bought Pixar, they bought Marvel. They continue to expand because there was a bigger vision for that. So I'm hoping that this app continues to grow, continue to help parents out there. And then for Galiwango, that one I'm really passionate about because I really want fellow Ugans, especially the youth.
Speaker 3:I remember going to track the mountain gorillas. I met a young student who was backpacking, was helping carry the lords. He was like a porter of sorts that helps you as you go up the mountain because the mountains are really steep and windy. It's like almost going at a 45 degree angle. But I asked him what he wanted to do and I found out that his parents grew up there and then they'd linkage the Batua community. And then I talked with a.
Speaker 3:There was a sergeant by Yenda. At the time he was like I think he's since been promoted, but at the time when I met him in Bwindi, he was a sergeant and he's the one that really opened my eyes up to the struggles that wildlife rangers go through, because they are putting themselves in between the porches and the rebels and the endangered wildlife in Uganda, and the wildlife is really like a revenue source for our country. So talk about tourism. People come into Uganda. They always talk about mountain gorillas. So I want people to, especially the young, the youth, to treasure you know our country, to treasure our. You know the land, the vegetation, the animals and whatever, and be willing to preserve it. So, yeah, those are. Those are two that I really, really am passionate about and I continue to work on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how do you see Seoul Studios and your practice in five years?
Speaker 3:In five years I would like to have produced multiple episodes of Nanchia merchandise content that people can use, continue to create comic books Because we have a print solution and a digital solution. So one time a friend sent me a video. They were in the village, they didn't have internet access but they were using our app and the kids were dancing to Prince Annitandra and also Nanchia dancing. You know and you know Nabubia, zimbabwe. You know all those things that enjoy, enjoy, enjoy kids enjoying our content in the village without an internet connection. So I see that being more prevalent, that wherever the kids are, that they are given an opportunity to learn that language as well, as far as Korea, all the way to Canada, in Brazil, that wherever the Ugandans are, they are sitting down, virtually or not, but they have that storytelling fireside kind of experience that I had with my grandmother. In passing on those same experiences, Amazing.
Speaker 1:So it's amazing just sitting down and listening. I think it's one of those episodes that makes the podcast format tick, because there's something about you drawing inspiration from the oral stories that were passed on from your grandmother and now trying to paint this picture people listening of your journey, which is also oral in its own way, but the story and we're talking about storytelling and language it's like there's so many layers that I'm excited for people to listen to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and something that's real quick, that I forgot to mention, that actually was approached by Moonbug. These are the ones that own Coco Melon. I think every parent knows Coco Melon, so my wife and I were approached and I wrote an episode on there on Coco Melon Storytime, so it actually it's a story inspired by a Ugandan tale.
Speaker 1:Yes, listen to that. Yes, we get to that.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah so there's a little bit of Uganda in Coco Melon in there.
Speaker 1:It's funny listen. I've had my kids, my kids listen to their Coco Melon Storytimes before, especially my son. He's four and he loves Coco Melon Storytimes. And it's funny because one time, I think, I was in my room and I heard like this this particular story is inspired by Mattel from Uganda. And I remember thinking, wow, and I didn't connect the dots.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wrote that and I grew again on those experiences of growing up in the village, because it used to be like a village effort when you need to build a hut, the village came together to build the hut. You know like I watch people doing like a mituba with the back clothes, making drums out of logs and things like that. So they say that whole thing, those drum sounds that you hear when you get a chance listen to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is your African aesthetic?
Speaker 3:African aesthetic to me is the power of a grandmother, you know, passing on a legacy of storytelling and then, years down the road, future generations are able to look back and say you know that grandmother, in a village deep down in Masaka, we can trace back to where the journey started, that the foundation of the African child comes from the village.
Speaker 3:You know it takes a village to raise a child and for me it took my grandmother to empower me, pour into me, and then along the way I meet people, but they had to see something in me to be willing to, you know, pour into me and then my. I think even for my YouTube channel, what I try to do is try to encourage Africans as much as possible to pursue their dreams. So our stories are valid, our stories are extremely valid from Africa and we it's nobody else can tell our stories the way we can. Don't wait for other people to come tell you African story. So African aesthetic is you knowing who you are and then making sure that future generations know who they are because of what you contributed to that.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much, Solomon, for taking this time to to just you know, engage in this conversation with Eunice and I, and we're very honored that you were on this podcast. We can't wait to share this with the world and to continue thinking about how we can all continue to draw from our own cultures, our heritage to trace, to trace our own histories and trace them for the future generations and be proud of them as well, Because, like you said, you know, if we don't tell our stories, our language, our languages can die off and other people will tell them for us. So we don't, we don't want that to happen. So thank you so much for taking this time.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, guys. It's been an honor and I look forward to doing this again.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please join us for more conversations and interviews with African educators, creatives, architects, urban planners and designers, as they share their knowledge and experiences about practicing in Africa and the diaspora.
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